Hunter Living Histories

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History of Carrington by Edward (Ted) Coulin (4.7MB PDF File)

We are delighted to be able to present to the public what is possibly the first history of Carrington ever written. The History of Carrington by Edward (Ted) Coulin was written between the years 1983-1995, and he has given his permission for it to be made freely available as a digital e-book for ongoing research.

Edward (Ted) Coulin was born in 1922, and attended Carrington Public School between 1928 and 1935. He began his working life at the Maritime Services Board (M.S.B.) in 1939. In 1940 he enlisted in the RAAF and became a bomber Pilot. He also served as Personal Pilot to the colonial Governor of Bengal,  Richard Casey, in India. After World War II he returned to M.S.B. and became its Newcastle Branch Manager in 1966. He remained Manager until he retired in 1982. After retirement, between 1983 and 1995, he wrote the History of Newcastle Harbour and later History of Carrington. Both have only existed in manuscript form. His original manuscript of the History of Newcastle Harbour is held in the Local Studies Section of the Newcastle Public Library.  His entire life has been spent around Newcastle and its Harbour. The manuscript of his History of Carrington has remained in the family’s possession.

In late March 2014 we were contacted by his daughter Linda, following one of our media stories. It was mentioned in passing that her father had written histories of both the Newcastle Harbour and the suburb of Carrington. We mentioned that we had had some recent interest in the history of Carrington from our University’s post grad architecture students who were designing new concept buildings for the area, and that such a history would be of enormous value to them. Linda contacted her brother Pierre, who was the tech whiz, and together have generously created a digital version of their father’s original manuscript for us to share with the community as an e-book.

The University of Newcastle’s Cultural Collections (Auchmuty Library) and the Coal River Working Party would like to thank Mr Edward (Ted) Coulin, his son, Pierre Coulin and daughter, Linda Erzetich, for their assistance in making available to the wider research community this History of Carrington. We greatly appreciate the family’s generosity in providing this original research free of charge, and hope that it will be of use to the wider research community.

Gionni Di Gravio
University Archivist and Chair, University’s Coal River Working PartyApril 2014